Heath Ledger Found Dead!
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28-year-old Heath Ledger was found dead in his SoHo, New York apartment this afternoon.
A housekeeper and masseuse found the actor unconscious in his bedroom when the masseuse arrived for a scheduled appointment. They immediately called authorities, who found prescription pills near his body, and say that foul play is not suspected.
When paramedics arrived, Ledger was in full cardiac arrest. They attempted CPR but were unsuccessful and he was pronounced dead at the scene.
Ledger, from Perth, Australia, won critical acclaim for his role in the 2005 film, Brokeback Mountain.
The actor has a two-year-old daughter, Matilda, with former fiance Michelle Williams.
Developing…
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Filed under: Heath Ledger
[…] R.I.P. Heath, you were a great actor and friend to many. […]
This is shocking! How very sad and perplexing. Here the AP had written Britney Spears’ obituary and it is Heath Ledger who dies.
Britney and Amy Winehouse will probably live to be old ladies.
I am just shocked. I wonder, since it is an over the counter sleeping drug, did he just take too much unthinkingly with the cavalier attitude not uncommon to guys, “I’m young. I’m a big guy. It’ll take more than the normal dose to put me out.” Ladies, this is where one may have to scream like a harpy for their own good.
Sleeping pills whether OTC, prescription or herbal (Valerian/Kava) are central nervous system depressants. They act on the medulla, the part of the brain that controls heart beat and breathing. If this is depressed too far - and especially if the heart is weakened from stimulant use the system can be taken down to a point where they do not wake up.
Stimulants weaken the kidney/adrenals which then weaken the heart and lungs. Also, if he had any breathing issues, like asthma, any sleeping pill would have been contra-indicated as one might not wake up.
On the other hand, there are reports that he was found ‘on the floor by the bed with pills all around.’ Hmmmmm. I’d have expected him to be found in his bed. He had been chasing after an Australian top model recently. Did she snub him and he reacted unstably and did this as a self-destructive act in a moment of depression? I hope not.
Either way, it is tragic. I believe he would have had a long career. He was a very gifted actor who always challenged himself. He would have only gotten better. We’ll have to wait and see what the medical reports say.
Aha. TMZ is reporting that Heath had pneumonia. This would put weakness on the heart and lungs. To take sleeping pills with lung/breathing issues is contraindicated. See above post for details.
I had a brush with this kind of medical accident myself a number of years ago. I had asthma from moving to a smoggy city and the worthless doctor at this HMO refused to order me a breathing test. He claimed he ‘knew’ what my problem was and that I needed sleeping pills. I filled the prescription - and this is key - read all the pharmaceutical literature before I considered taking the drug that night.
It said in big bold letters - Do not take if you have any breathing problems. I did not take it and I fired that doctor. If Heath had Ambien or one of the prescription sleep medicines which disrupt your sleep so you wake every couple hours. He probably took more thinking this would help him sleep thought the night and took it with pneumonia. Then his death is a tragic medical accident. His death was preventable.
Note to the wise. Don’t practice polypharmacy (or let someone practice this on you or someone you love) without cross-checking if a drug is contra-indicated relative to other conditions you may have or drugs being taken. Symptoms cannot be treated in isolation.
It’s got to be up to you. It’s you or a loved one who may pay with their lives. Don’t worry about the egos of doctors. They want to play God until it kills someone. Then they are plenty human, make mistakes, or declare it is your fault. Grandiosity and narcissism. Don’t just ‘take pills’ because a doctor/nurse gives them to you! Think, read, question. They are consultants who work for you. They are not high priests. Don’t surrender that power of thinking and choice. Your life depends on it.
I had another medical scare where a male nurse gave me a new asthma drug and the wrong instructions for taking it. If I had passively followed his instructions without taking responsibility for my safety by reading the instructions/pharmaceutical literature with the drug I would have taken a drug meant to be taken once in 12 hours in 4 hours like he’d described. That would have caused cardiac arrest. It would have been a ‘medical mistake’.
Always read. And fellas, don’t think you are superhuman and can take or need more drugs than ‘a normal person’. When in doubt, take less. This is very sad.